Last night, John and I started preparing the Christmas tree to be decorated. JJ has been really excited for several weeks about decorating for Christmas. So while John and I painstakingly tried to figure out what was wrong with our Christmas lights, JJ entertained himself by digging through my ornament boxes. This process of trying to remedy our light problem was of course very frustrating and time consuming and it wasn't long before John and I were at each others throat!! JJ, in the meantime, was pulling out one glass fragile bulb after another with the clumsy enthusiasm of a 5 year old boy!! I found myself hollering at him and soon I had him crying!
I couldn't help but think, "yay! this is fun... um NOT!!".
Finally JJ fell asleep (basically cried himself to sleep) on the living room couch. And John and I were exhausted from fighting with each other, the Christmas tree and JJ! And to our chagrin, the dang tree and lights were still not ready!!UGH!!!
As I sat there looking at my sweet little boy sleeping on the couch with an ornament clutched in his hand, I felt like the crummiest mother ever! All he wanted to do was decorate the tree and there I was hollering at him every 2 seconds for "manhandling" my Christmas ornaments!! ugh!! I mean REALLY? How STUPID!! What was I thinking? I am so so so so blessed to have this sweet little boy in my life and now a new baby, too... wow! What was I thinking???
Just the other day I was complaining to a friend how I really wished I could get the real message of Christmas across to JJ, and then there I was totally forgetting it myself!
After talking with John, we decided we were going to pitch our original tree- take JJ to Lowe's in the morning and pick out a live tree of his choice and then let him decorate it how ever he wanted.
So-- we are the proud owners of a beautiful 7 foot live Douglas fir Christmas tree. It has colored lights and maybe 20 ornaments/toys all hand picked by my sweet big hearted little boy, JJ. It includes a paper tornado (a super cell, of course), a plastic bag with a taped picture he drew of a Christmas tree, a Swan, his and Rick Cashs' handprint ornaments and some toy trains! JJ picked each piece and it looks beautiful. I told him he could use any of the 1000 plus ornaments I had, and these were the few he chose. I have to say they were all very thought out choices. And so for us, this Christmas is the first of a new tradition where Christmas trees and Christmas decorating is reserved for our boys. After all, it is what Christmas is about- LOVE.
The smile on his face says it all!
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Bryanna John JJ & Rick Cash
